REYON Pharmaceutical will start full-fledged production of plasmid DNA (pDNA) at the Chungju bio plant. 

REYON Pharmaceutical (co-CEOs Jeong Soon-ok and Yoo Yong-hwan) announced on April 20 that it had signed a pDNA supply contract with INNOPEUTICS (CEO Kim Tae-gyun).

REYON Pharmaceutical will produce the pDNA drug substance (DS) and drug product (DP) at the Chungju bio plant and supply it to INNOPEUTICS. The exact value of the contract was not disclosed as agreed between the two companies.

REYON Pharmaceutical’s Chungju bio plant, the construction of which was completed last year, is capable of one-stop production of various pDNA-based biopharmaceuticals from drug substances to drug products 

pDNA, which is produced based on microbial fermentation, is applied as DNA vaccines and gene therapy products and is used as a drug substance for the manufacture of mRNA and adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based vaccines and therapeutics. .

INNOPEUTICS is a biotech company that develops AAV-based gene therapy products, and it is currently working on treatments for degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well as cancer and autoimmune disorders.

REYON Pharmaceutical, which won its first order for contract manufacturing, will collaborate with a number of other companies in R&D and production through the Chungju bio plant.

“We will do our best to help INNOPEUTICS develop innovative therapeutics through plasmid DNA production,” said Yoo Yong-hwan, co-CEO of REYON Pharmaceutical, who then added, “With this first order as a stepping stone, we will make every effort so that the Chungju bio plant can emerge as a gene therapy production hub for companies around the world, including Korea.”

 
INNOPEUTICS CEO Kim Tae-gyun said, “It brings me great pleasure to have signed a manufacturing contract with REYON Pharmaceutical, which can manufacture high-quality plasmids necessary for the manufacture of the advanced biopharmaceutical, AAV. […] The expansion of these types of production facilities in Korea will be of great help in rapidly carrying out clinical trials with the therapeutics that are developed, and it appears that a bio ecosystem where [companies] can coexist and develop together will be established in the offing.”